Sweden v. Israel: game, set and match

It marks the date when Israel met Sweden in the Davis Cup tennis tournament in the southern Swedish city of Malmö.

Two teams played. There was one victor, but two losers.

After a hard-fought and generally very evenly matched contest on the tennis court, Israel won the series 3-2. But it really could have gone either way, both teams put up a magnificent fight.

Israel emerged the victor.

Inauguration of the 2009 Davis Cup tennis tournament in an empty arena.

But there were two losers. Firstly, the Swedish Davis Cup team, despite a great showing and spirited playing.

And secondly, what is quickly emerging as the fading democracy of Sweden – the even bigger loser.

Ilmar Reepalu is mayor of Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city where Muslims make up almost 30 percent of the population. While the event was still in the planning stages, Mayor Reepalu made it clear that he did not want Jews from Israel in his city. He quoted “security concerns” – despite being told by the police that this was never going to be a problem.

Mr Reepalu then changed tack: “In my opinion, there should be no question of Sweden playing a match against Israel at all bearing in mind the situation (Israel’s 21-day operation in Gaza in response to 2920 days of Palestinian missile barrages on Israeli civilians)”. He went on to clarify his stance: “This is just not a tennis match against any old country. This is a match against the State of Israel.”

Mayor Reepalu appeared determined to set Sweden’s foreign policy in Malmö. The Swedish government in the country’s capital city, Stockholm, appeared to be completely sidelined by the brazen takeover of the nation’s foreign policy agenda.

At Malmö Town Hall the city council decided to make a very public issue of out its political stance, with radical left-wing parties winning the vote 5-4 to ban spectators from the venue as a means of persuading the Israeli team to abandon its plans to play at all.

The Israeli team turned up nonetheless. And won.

Sweden lost. It lost its chances of advancing in the Davis Cup tournament.

Sweden also lost its reputation as a democracy – like the Palestinians who seem uncertain as to whether their government is in Gaza City or Ramallah, Swedes no longer know whether their government’s foreign policy is set in Stockholm or Malmö.

And Sweden lost financially: with spectators banned by a city mayor keener to play foreign-policy demagogue than local civic leader, Malmö lost revenue from ticket sales, hotel and restaurant turnover, bus and taxi earnings.

And then had to foot the bill for mounting a multi-million kronor security operation the likes of which had never been seen in this country. One thousand police officers drafted in to maintain law and order, upwards of one hundred police vehicles involved.

Did they succeed? The police security cordon was impenetrable. I witnessed several attempts in the hours before and during the tennis games to breach security, and none succeeded. Game, set and match to the police, then.

But at what cost? The photographs and film images show a fraction of the damage caused by the largely Muslim rioters aided and abetted by radical left-wing saboteurs.

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Rioters on the rampage in Malmö